Mv Uhuru to sail Lake Victoria again, says RVR

Plans are at an advanced stage to revive the giant cargo ferry mv Uhuru on Lake Victoria.

The 1,000-tonne cargo carrier, which plied the Kisumu-Mwanza-Port Bell route, was grounded in 2006 over what marine engineers termed “minor technical and logistical problems.”

Repairs on the vessel are underway and it is expected to begin operations in the first week of August, almost three years after it was withdrawn.”

Speaking at the dry dock in Kisumu where the vessel has been lying since 2006, Rift Valley Railways executive chairman Brown Ondego said the ship was ready to sail pending small adjustments and maintenance procedures following the long lay-off.

He, however, did not disclose the amount of money the firm has pumped into the refurbishment of the vessel.

As part of wider plans to revive the ferry services on the shared lake, the railways concessionaire has sponsored a captain and a chief engineer for a course in Standards of Training, Certification & Watch Keeping at the Dar es Salaam Maritime Institute.

Mr Ondego said two other seafarers will attend a similar course next month. Kenya is not certified by the International Maritime Organisation to train a certain cadre of seafarers at the Bandari College operated by the Kenya Ports Authority. “We are not on the White Paper so we have to train our staff in Tanzania,” said Mr Ondego.

At the height of it operations, mv Uhuru made Ksh17 million ($217,948) per month.

RVR inherited the vessel from the Kenya Railways Corporation in 2006 but the two firms could not agree on who should pay for the vessel’s insurance and after it expired, it was not renewed as RVR was also struggling with its rail business.

The withdrawal of mv Uhuru opened the door for smaller privately-owned cargo vessels, but these have not been able to meet the demand for shipping of cargo, forcing traders to turn to the more expensive road transport.

The withdrawal of mv Uhuru in 2006 was preceded by the 2005 collision between two Ugandan cargo ferries — mv Kawa and mv Kabalega — resulting in a pile up of cargo in both Kisumu and Mwanza.

On the commercial side, the withdrawal of the vessel denied the government of Kenya close to Ksh10 million ($128,205) in revenue per month.

Mr Ondego and RVR’s commercial manager for Western Kenya Louis Nyalwal are optimistic that the return of mv Uhuru will contribute to the growth of the region’s economy.

Mr Ondego said, “There is high demand for cement in Mwanza while the volume of trade between Mwanza and Port Bell has also gone up.”

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2008 Economic Survey, in 2007 Kenya sent approximately 12 per cent of its total exports to Uganda worth Ksh33.6 billion ($430.7 million) while 8 per cent or Ksh22.32 billions worth ($286.15 million) was exported to the Tanzania market.